“Helping someone else

through difficulty is where

civilization starts.”

– Margaret Mead

Our upcoming Worldwide 5-Hour LIVE Broadcast from Times Square strengthens the message of the United Nations International Day of Peace and we have included a focus on Ecology. As stated by Dr. Jane Goodall, UN Peace Messenger in our broadcasts, “Without taking care of MOTHER EARTH there can be no peace.” Here is our Earth & Water Day 6 Hour LIVE Broadcast that we did on April 22, 2023, also in Times Square. Here is the link to our Earth Day Sizzle Reel & The Six Hour Broadcast Series:

Earth & Water Day 4/22/23

Times Square Sizzle Reel

Earth & Water Day from

Times Square April 22, 2023.

A Six-Hour Series.

BACKGROUND:

Our nonprofit, 501 C 3 Good News Corporation, has been producing The International Day of Peace & Ecology since 2002 in Central Park/NY, and in Times Square/NY. We start our concert at 12 Noon with Ringo Starr, from the Beatles virtually requesting a “Moment of Silence for Peace”, which is what the day represents, along with a cease-fire everywhere and acts of peace. Here is the link to The United Nations Peace Day https://www.un.org/en/observances/international-day-peace  McKinsey Co. states that there are over 1.6 Billion people aware of the day and one of our broadcasters, UNIFY, some years ago pre-covid received 2 Billion Views on The International Day of Peace. Sponsors joining the event are Samsung, General Motors, BNP Paribas, HOMMM, and others in the process of joining the broadcast.

We would love for you to join the many celebrities who share messages for peace and ecology, some virtually, including Dr. Jane Goodall, Michael Douglas, Leonardo DiCaprio, Sir Paul McCarthy, Stevie Wonder, Shakira, City of New York, Michel Pascal & the Earth, Wind & Fire Musicians, and Musical Director, as well musicians that have worked with Michael Jackson, Madonna, Celine Dion, AY Young, Founder of the Battery Tour and the UN Young Global Leader and a revered Entertainer, International Star Giorgia Fumanti from Canada and many more stars who care about Peace & Ecology including Carnegie Hall Sell Out Pianist for 20 years Katya Grineva 

Here is a link from the wonderful Michel Pascal Cutting Room Gathering: Included, is a link to watch the entire event in the post.

Soulful Brunch Dance Meditation

with Michel Pascal and Friends,

Good News Video & Pay Per

View… Great Show!

Looking forward to seeing you on September 21 in Times Square,

Respectfully Submitted

Paul Sladkus

Founder

Good News Corporation, a nonprofit

www.pausetheworldforpeace.org

212 647 1212 Cell. 917 687 1790

New York & Montauk, New York

LET’S GROW TOGETHER. GOOD NEWS MOTTO: ALL WE ARE IS WHAT WE ARE WITH EACH OTHER. ZEAL

For more information contact: 

Reverend Paul Sladkus, All Faiths and Spiritual 212 647 1212

New York, NY, Montauk, NY

PS – SPECIAL OPPORTUNITY FOR OUR FRIENDS AND MEMBERS: Looking for a vacation rental, SHORT TERM, in Montauk, here is our listing https://goodnewsplanet.com/montauk-manor-rental-suite-403-paul-sladkus/ call me. Paul 917 687 1790

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Al Smith has a heart for humanity, he works diligently performing at fund-raising events and concerts wherever he’s needed; helping organizations like North General Hospital and the Boriken Health Center build new and green facilities in Harlem New York; The New Orleans Rescue Mission feeding the homeless; ECOFEST promoting the environment; The Lee Perry Gross Agency; entertaining at health and rehabilitation centers; We-The-World Organization advocating sustainable change, and EDUCONCERTS promoting tolerance for a new Ethi-culture. He is not only musically talented, but has a God-given philanthropic, entrepreneurial spirit sharing his time, money and life with many who may be struggling and in need of a voice. He is in demand and highly requested to appear at diverse cause-based events and philanthropic activities.

Al Smith

Al Smith performs playing his special MIDI guitar (channeled through a guitar synthesizer) and singing while entertaining audiences in clubs to outdoor stadiums. He is the founder of the recording band Blacksmith, who now often performs as a solo artist using his sequenced backing tracks to accompany him. You can honestly say he sounds like a FULL LIVE BAND…So much so that people from other rooms “crash” his performances convinced they are listening to a full band. As a seasoned entertainer he knows how to connect with his audiences (which no doubt separates him from other performers). Whether it be ballads, rock n’ roll or the soulful sounds of Motown—he really sounds like the artists he’s giving tribute to. He is booked in venues throughout as a main attraction.

Al Smith is a historic internet pioneer, reaching over 250 million subscribers worldwide with his music and message. He is a known technology advocate as a pro-active member of the Distributing Computing Industry Association

for more info, go to www.yourockguitar.com/artists/al-smith/

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Good News had the honor to create the 20th anniversary of Woodstock with Richie. He was a great man who taught us a great deal about life. FREEDOM. Reverend Paul Sladkus. Good news planet.
Richie Havens was an American folk singer and guitarist.
He is best known for his intense and rhythmic guitar style (often in open tunings), soulful covers of pop and folk songs, and his opening performance at the 1969 Woodstock Festival.

Early life

Born in Brooklyn, Havens was the eldest of nine children.  At an early age, he began organizing his neighborhood friends into street corner doo-wop groups and was performing with the McCrea Gospel Singers at 16.

Early career

At age 20, Havens left Brooklyn, seeking artistic stimulation in Greenwich Village. “I saw the Village as a place to escape to, in order to express yourself”, he recalled. “I had first gone there during the Beatnik days of the 1950s to perform poetry, then I drew portraits for two years and stayed up all night listening to folk music in the clubs. It took a while before I thought of picking up a guitar.”

Havens’ reputation as a solo performer soon spread beyond the Village folk circles. After cutting two records for Douglas Records, he signed on with Bob Dylan‘s manager, Albert Grossman, and landed a record deal with the Verve Forecast label. Verve released Mixed Bag in 1967, which featured tracks such as “Handsome Johnny” (co-written by Havens and future Oscar-winning actor Louis Gossett Jr.), “Follow”, and a cover of Bob Dylan’s “Just Like a Woman“.

Pre-Woodstock rise

By 1969, Havens had released five more albums. Something Else Again (1968) became his first album to hit the Billboard chart and also pulled Mixed Bag back onto the charts. Two of those albums were unauthorized “exploitation albums” released by Douglas Records (or Douglas International): Electric Havens (released June 01, 1968) and Richie Havens Record (1969):

This [Electric Havens] was one of two albums (the other being The Richie Havens Record) comprised of overdubbed solo demos, probably from sometime between 1963-1965, that Havens had done prior to recording for Verve and making his official recording debut. In the late ’60s, as Havens rose to stardom, producer Alan Douglas took the original solo demos and overdubbed them with electric instruments. The albums were pulled from circulation and are hard to find today. The eight-song set is oriented toward the kind of traditional material that he was likely doing in clubs around that time, such as “Oxford Town”, “C. C. Rider”, and “900 Miles From Home” as well as an early Dylan cover, “Boots & Spanish Leather”.

Woodstock: opening act

Havens’ reputation as a live performer earned him widespread notice. His Woodstock appearance proved to be a major turning point in his career. As the festival’s first performer, he held the crowd for nearly three hours (in part because he was told to perform a lengthy set because many artists were delayed in reaching the festival location), and he was called back for several encores. Having run out of tunes, he improvised a song based on the old spiritual “Motherless Child” that became “Freedom”. The subsequent Woodstock movie release helped Havens reach a worldwide audience. He also appeared at the Isle of Wight Festival in late August 1969.

Following the success of his Woodstock performance, Havens started his own record label, Stormy Forest, and released Stonehenge in 1970. Later that year came Alarm Clock, which included the George Harrison-penned hit single, “Here Comes the Sun“. This was Havens’ first album to reach Billboard’s Top 30 Chart. Stormy Forest went on to release four more of his albums: The Great Blind Degree (1971), Live On Stage (1972), Portfolio (1973), and Mixed Bag II (1974). Memorable television appearances included performances on The Ed Sullivan Show and The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. On the latter program, the audience reacted with such enthusiasm that when the applause continued even after the commercial break, Carson asked Havens to return the following night.

Havens also branched out into acting during the 1970s. He was featured in the original 1972 stage presentation of The Who’s Tommy, and appeared as Othello in the 1974 film Catch My Soul. He also appeared in Greased Lightning alongside Richard Pryor in 1977. In 1987, he landed a role in the Bob Dylan vehicle Hearts of Fire.

Havens increasingly devoted his energies to educating young people about ecological issues. In the mid-1970s, he co-founded the Northwind Undersea Institute, an oceanographic children’s museum on City Island in the Bronx. That, in turn, led to the creation of the Natural Guard, an organization Havens describes as “a way of helping kids learn that they can have a hands-on role in affecting the environment. Children study the land, water, and air in their own communities and see how they can make positive changes from something as simple as planting a garden in an abandoned lot.”. In July of 1978 he also was a featured performer at the Benefit Concert for The Longest Walk, an American Indian spiritual walk from Alcatraz to Washington DC affirming treaty rights, as a result of legislation that had been introduced to abrogate Indian treaties.

1980s–1990s

During the 1980s and 1990s, Havens continued a world touring schedule and a steady release of albums. The release of the 1993 Resume, The Best Of Richie Havens Rhinocollected his late 1960s and early 1970s recordings. In 1982, Havens composed and performed a promotional slogan for NBC‘s 1982-83 television season entitled, We’re NBC, Just Watch Us Now. He also performed slogans for CBS and ABC, and recorded commercials for Amtrak, singing the slogan “There’s something about a train that’s magic.” Havens also has done corporate commercial work for Maxwell House Coffee as well as singing “The Fabric of Our Lives” theme for the cotton industry.

In 1993, Havens performed at the inauguration of President Bill Clinton. Among the selections was the “Cotton” song, made famous by a series of television ads in the early 1990s. In 1999, Havens played at the Tibetan Freedom Concert for an audience of more than 100,000.

Havens also played a small role as a character named Daze in a 1990 film named Street Hunter starring John Leguizamo.

Havens was the twentieth living recipient of the Peace Abbey Courage of Conscience Award, presented in Sherborn, Massachusetts, on April 12, 1991.

In addition to performing at charity benefit concerts, Havens formed the Northwind Undersea Institute, an oceanographic children’s museum on City Island in The Bronx. The museum led to the creation of The Natural Guard, an organization that educates children about the environment.

2000s

In 2000, Havens teamed with the electronic music duo Groove Armada for the retro 1970s-style song, “Hands of Time”. The song was featured on the soundtrack of the film Collateral starring Tom Cruise and Jamie Foxx; the same song was also used in the films Dominostarring Keira Knightley, and Tell No One with François Cluzet. Havens was also featured on “Little By Little” and “Healing” on the band’s third album, Goodbye Country (Hello Nightclub).

In 2000, Havens published They Can’t Hide Us Anymore, an autobiography co-written with Steve Davidowitz. He maintained his status as a folk icon and continued to tour. In 2002, he released Wishing Well, followed by the 2004 album Grace of the Sun.

In 2003, the National Music Council awarded Havens the American Eagle Award for his place as part of America’s musical heritage and for providing “a rare and inspiring voice of eloquence, integrity and social responsibility.”

On October 15, 2006, Havens was inducted into the Long Island Music Hall of Fame.

In 2007, Havens appeared as “Old Man Arvin” in the Todd Haynes film I’m Not There. In a classic front-porch jam scene, he is shown singing the Bob Dylan song “Tombstone Blues” with Marcus Carl Franklin and Tyrone Benskin. Havens’ version of the song also appears on the I’m Not There soundtrack.

Havens was invited to perform at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival opening ceremony. He played “Freedom” in tribute to his fan and jury president, Sean Penn. He also performed at the London, Ontario, Blues Festival in July 2008.

In March 2008, Havens released a new studio album entitled, Nobody Left To Crown. The first single release was the country-tinged “The Key”.

Havens appeared in the acclaimed 2009 film Soundtrack for a Revolution, which provided a general history of the modern Civil Rights Movement, and had modern artists performing many of the era’s musical classics. In the film, Havens performed a haunting rendition of “Will the Circle Be Unbroken”.

On May 3, 2009, Havens performed at the fundraising concert in honor of Pete Seeger‘s 90th birthday. In June 2009, he performed at the fifth annual Mountain Jam Festival. The event, hosted by Allman Brothers Band and Gov’t Mule guitarist Warren Haynes, was held at the Hunter Mountain Ski Resort in Hunter, New York. As is the tradition, the festival took place on the weekend following Memorial Day. On June 20, 2009, Havens performed at the Clearwater Festival. On July 4, 2009, he performed at the Woodstock Tribute festival in Ramsey, New Jersey. On August 8, 2010, he performed at Musikfest 2010 at Foy Hall at Moravian College in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.

On March 20, 2012, Havens announced on his Facebook page that he would stop touring after 45 years due to health concerns. On April 22, 2013, Earth Day, Havens died of aheart attack at home in Jersey City, New Jersey. He was 72

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